Root beer: A uniquely American brew

last updated 8 January 2015

Few sodas can have the same mystique as “a frosty mug of root beer,” said Eric Asimov in The New York Times. What other kind of soda lends its name to an ice cream drink—the root beer float—or evokes memories of “road-trip pit stops at A&W root beer stands”? Hundreds of root beer makers across the country contribute to a diversity of flavors that cola can’t match.

In a recent tasting, my colleagues and I sampled 25 root beers—“not from frosty mugs but in our usual wine glasses.” These stood out: